OMAHA — All the middle-school students raised their hands.
Autumn Sky Burns had just asked roughly 25 high-ability learners from the three Papillion-La Vista middle schools whether any of them had friends who used e-cigarettes.
Burns, the Sarpy County coordinator of Tobacco Education & Advocacy of the Midlands, had asked the same question of students the year before. She estimates that only 10 percent of a similar group had raised their hands last year.
"I'm nervous that people won't really understand what's happening until we have an entire generation of kids addicted to nicotine because of e-cigarettes," Burns said.
That's what Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he was trying to prevent earlier this month when he introduced more restrictions on e-cigarettes in an attempt to curb their use among youths.
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The FDA says it will limit sales of many flavored e-cigarettes to bricks-and-mortar outlets that have either age-restricted entry or areas inside stores that are not accessible to people under 18. The FDA also will require stepped-up age verification for online sales.
Nationally and locally, officials are concerned that teenage e-cigarette usage could lead to nicotine addiction early in life. Nicotine may affect adolescent brain development, health experts say, and officials fear that e-cigarette use could lead to regular cigarette usage.
When asked if he vaped, a 17-year-old who was with his friends at Omaha's Memorial Park last week pulled a silver Suorin brand vaping device out of his pocket. The boy, who was hanging out at the park after school, agreed to comment on the condition that his name and high school not be listed.
The boy said he started vaping at 15 because it gave him a buzz.
"All day, every day," the teenager said when asked how much he used it. That includes using it in school hallways, bathrooms and, occasionally, in the classroom, he said.
The teenager said he previously used a Juul, a product that accounts for more than 70 percent of e-cigarette retail sales. He said he used to go through one Juul pod a day. Each pod contains about the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, according to the company.
Along with the restrictions, the FDA and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the findings of the National Youth Tobacco Survey. It showed that vaping had increased 78 percent among high school students since 2017 and almost 48 percent among middle-schoolers.
In the survey, 3.6 million kids reported vaping at least once in the previous 30 days. In addition, 28 percent of high school vapers said they used e-cigarettes at least 20 days a month.